Sword Among Us

Happy farmed the royal mausoleum for a few days.

Even though he had a lot of competitors, he still managed to fulfill his promise with Kind Tycoon on the second day. He traded one hundred high-grade masterpieces with him and received 130,000,000 taels of silver.

Immediately, Kind Tycoon mentioned that he was willing to sell his third-echelon Clear Abyss for thirty million taels of silver. Happy could not refuse such a kind offer because the prime cost alone was definitely worth more than that.

Happy knew that Kind Tycoon wanted to form a closer relationship between them by making him remember a debt. After accepting the offer, he sighed in his heart. ‘Kind Tycoon is indeed a merchant who is willing to give up on his capital.’

If Happy had a third-echelon Clear Abyss, it would be much easier for him to clear the royal mausoleum.

Once the sword with purple, red, and blue lights appeared in his hands, it was as if Happy had obtained a divine vessel. When he used Seven Stars Sword Styles and activated Wind Spirit Spin, he could easily leave behind a terrifying sword mark that was two feet deep in the sturdy Ghost Face Wall. Not a single person dared to stand in a circular area of thirty-two feet around him, and that included players on the Dragon Rank and Phoenix Rank. All of them could only stare and sigh powerlessly.

The hall in the second level of the royal mausoleum was basically a place solely for Happy.

His sword glare moved about freely, and no one dared to get close to him in fear of causing him to misunderstand them and be displeased. It had to be known that once people reached their level, they might be full of confidence, but they were even more afraid of dying. If they died once, it would be enough for them to fall out of the ranking board and perhaps even become part of the inferior players.

*****

While Happy was clearing the royal mausoleum and gathering up his wealth in a frenzy, he also paid attention to some of the changes in the game. Aside from him quietly falling out of the top 100 on the Dragon Rank, the first and second on Dragon Rank—One Emperor and Zhou Yu—had stirred up the trend of reaching Life and Death Realm.

The night before, One Emperor reached Life and Death Realm by pushing three Mystical Realm high-tier martial arts to Grandmaster Realm. The next day’s afternoon, Zhou Yu also reached Life and Death Realm right after him. He was very close behind One Emperor.

‘Zhou Yu?’

Happy did have some memories regarding Zhou Yu, but they were not clear.

He remembered that Zhou Yu did not have a lot of face at that time, but when the players talked about One Emperor, the two empresses, three kings, seven dukes, and thirteen aces, some people would frequently also mention Zhou Yu. However, by then, he had already vanished from the game.

Could it be that since he was reborn, he had affected Zhou Yu’s progress in some intangible form? That just like Silver Fox, he decided to continue staying in the game…

Happy naturally did not know that because of him, the pay-to-view battle replay system had been launched ahead of its time, One Emperor had reached Life and Death Realm beforehand, and Zhou Yu had also made a different decision in a different environment.

While paying attention to Happy, Zhou Yu also had great curiosity and a sense of competitiveness toward the mysterious great player known as One Emperor, who was always ahead of him.

Zhou Yu became serious!

In the meantime, the two queens of the Phoenix Rank, Dream Clouds and Wind Void, seemed to have started showing signs of falling into decline even though they had been popular for a time. They were surpassed by a girl called Phantasmal Shadow who had no sect or clan. She snatched away the glory of being at the top of the Phoenix Rank.

Due to Phantasmal Shadow’s provocation, Dream Clouds and Wind Void gradually lowered the amount of time they spent outside of the game. They handed the matter of managing their sects to their right-hand men while they poured all their heart and soul into training and reaching Life and Death Realm.

*****

“Life and Death Realm has arrived more than a month ahead of when I imagined it would arrive.”

When Happy left the game, he sat in front of his desk and rubbed at his temples while browsing through the internet. He felt as if someone had decided to stuff glue into his brain, and now his thoughts were all stuck together.

There were many things in his new life that were different from his previous life.

Forget about the changes on South China Martial Arts Ranking Board…

With the Three Lonely Wolves and Xu Xin maintaining the website, there were now more than two hundred thousand registered members. Many of the students in Hunan had applied to join the website, and the powerful players on the Power Ranking Board were as numerous as the stars in the sky. Besides, they had also organized a few small events with the official developers, which caused their fame to spread far and wide.

Once Beautiful Robes Faction went through the battle of Wengcheng, not only did they manage to retrieve Wengcheng, their fame also increased greatly. They even managed to increase their territory to a few cities.

Once One Circle and his group returned, Phoenix Dances made a bold decision to go ahead and build four branches, forming a net that connected more than ten cities in the area. Many of the important resource points were all gathered at the center of the net, and it allowed her to further strengthen Beautiful Robes Faction.

Mu Clan’s sudden arrival in the world also changed Chivalry Sect’s predicament.

Ever since the incident with Yao Hua in Fox Cave, Class One Hall did not do much to suppress Chivalry Sect. Their act of allowing Chivalry Sect to develop let the other gain a good momentum, especially when the alliance between the five sects was formed in Baokang.

With great resources serving as their support, Chivalry Sect quickly learned from Mu Clan and set up their own sect storage and contribution system. Lin Xiao and Red Dust’s reputation increased day by day, and the situation of their sect eventually splitting up because their leaders had disagreements never came to be.

Happy was naturally happy to see such good things, but there were also situations that left him troubled.

One Emperor’s frenzied cultivation made him suddenly worry that this man would fling caution to the wind and reach Moksha Realm with Zhou Yu right after him. Moksha Realm was something that was supposed to only appear after a year of the game’s launch. If it really came much earlier, then the joke about Happy returning to the past would have gone overboard.

Also, the trend for refining weapons and armor had showed up way earlier than it did in his previous life.

The value of herbalists had also been discovered earlier.

The game was in a state it was only supposed to reach a year after its launch.

“How can this be?”

Happy felt that the World of Martial Arts was like a train that had left its tracks. Sparks flew everywhere, but no one could not pull the brakes. Of course, Happy was thinking about the speed of the players’ development and their passion compared to what he had seen in his previous life. It was not that there was a problem with the operation of the game itself.

Just when Happy realized that something just did not add up, the phone on his table started vibrating and buzzing.

He picked up to see the name ‘Xu Yao.’

He frowned and paused for a moment as he stared at the number on the phone’s screen.

Ever since his identity was exposed, many people found out his phone number, and practically every single person among the higher-ups in Beautiful Robes Faction had it. Naturally, Xu Yao was one of them. Over the past few days, she had been sending short messages repeatedly in an attempt to melt the ice between them, but Happy had not replied to her once.

Even though he did not save Xu Yao’s number, her phone number was etched so deeply in his mind that he could not forget it.

“Hello?” Happy picked up the phone, but his voice was apathetic.

He heard Xu Yao catch her breath on the other end of the phone, then she spoke. “It’s me. Xu Yao.”

“Oh. Is something the matter?”

“Yes. I met Silver Wolf yesterday.” Xu Yao sounded uneasy and nervous before him.

“Hmm?” A thought appeared in Happy’s head, and he could not help but sit up straight.

“Rumors have it that a group of reinforcements from Class One Hall was ambushed by Silver Wolf when Beautiful Robes Faction was attacked, which is why the people from Class One Hall’s branch perished. Yesterday, when I was out doing a quest, I ran into Silver Wolf being attacked by a group of people by sheer coincidence, and I decided to help him.”

“Is he alright?” Happy’s gaze turned solemn, and he spoke in a mocking tone. “Who would have the guts to surround and attack Silver Wolf? Do they want to die?”

“They didn’t seem to be from Class One Hall,” Xu Yao answered. “I asked him at that time, and Silver Wolf mentioned that you made arrangements for him to come over and protect Beautiful Robes Faction. So I decided to call you and ask whether you will allow Silver Wolf to join Beautiful Robes Faction. He seems to be very lonely by himself.”

“You’re sticking your nose into this too much.”

Happy ended the call with an expression as cold as the North Pole. It looked as if there was a thundercloud above his head.